response.restoration.noaa.gov - Exxon Valdez Oil Spillhttps://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill
en10 Photos That Tell the Story of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and its Impactshttps://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/10-photos-tell-story-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-and-its-impacts.html
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/13/exxon-valdez-ship-with-response-vessels-mts_coast-guard_980.jpg" width="500" height="360" alt="Exxon Valdez ship with response vessels in Prince William Sound" title="The single-hull tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. (U.S. Coast Guard)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
The single-hull tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, March 24, 1989, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil. (U.S. Coast Guard) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>MARCH 24, 2016 -- While oil spills happen almost every day, we are fortunate that relatively few make such large or lasting impressions as the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/deepwater-horizon-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Deepwater Horizon</span></a> or <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span></a> spills.</p>
<p>Before 2010, when the United States was fixated on a gushing oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, most Americans could probably only name one spill: when the tanker <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> released 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989.</p>
<p>Here we've gathered 10 photos that help tell the story of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill and its impacts, not only on the environment but also on science, policy, spill response, school kids, and even board games. It has become a touchstone event in many ways, one to be learned from even decades after the fact.<br />
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<p><strong>1. Time for safety</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Calendar showing March 1989 and image of Exxon Valdez ship." height="1113" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-shipping-calendar-march-1989_gary-shigenaka_720.jpg" title="In an ironic twist of fate, the Exxon Shipping Company's safety calendar featured the tanker Exxon Valdez in March 1989, the same month the ship ran aground. Image: From the collection of Gary Shigenaka." width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">In an ironic twist of fate, the Exxon Shipping Company's safety calendar featured the tanker Exxon Valdez in March 1989, the same month the ship ran aground. Image: From the collection of Gary Shigenaka.</div>
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<p>Long before the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, a series of events were building that would enable this catastrophic marine accident to unfold as it did. These actions varied from the opening of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s to the decision by the corporation running that pipeline to disband its oil spill response team and <i>Exxon</i>’s efforts to hold up both the tanker <em>Exxon Valdez </em>and its captain, Joseph Hazelwood, as exemplars of safety.</p>
<p>Captain Hazelwood received two Exxon Fleet safety awards for 1987 and 1988, the years leading up to March 1989, which was coincidentally the month the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> was featured on an Exxon Shipping Company calendar bearing the warning to "take time to be careful - now."</p>
<p>Read more about the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/looking-back-what-led-exxon-val">timeline of events leading up to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill</a>.<br />
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<p><strong>2. A law for the birds</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Birds killed as a result of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill." height="514" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/dead-oiled-birds-after-exxon-valdez-spill_credit-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-trustee-council_720.jpg" title="Thanks to the Oil Pollution Act, federal and state agencies can more easily evaluate the full environmental impacts of oil spills -- and then enact restoration to make up for that harm. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Thanks to the Oil Pollution Act, federal and state agencies can more easily evaluate the full environmental impacts of oil spills -- and then enact restoration to make up for that harm. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)</div>
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<p>Photos of oil-soaked birds and other wildlife in Prince William Sound reinforced just how inadequate the patchwork of existing federal, state, and local laws were at preventing or addressing the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill.</p>
<p>While lawmakers took nearly a year and a half—and a few more oil spills—to pass the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/house-bill/01465">Oil Pollution Act of 1990</a>, this landmark legislation was without a doubt inspired by that major oil spill. (After all, the law specifically "bars from Prince William Sound any tank vessels that have spilled over 1,000,000 gallons of oil into the marine environment after March 22, 1989." In other words, the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>.) In the years since it passed, this <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/it-took-more-exxon-valdez-oil-s">law has made huge strides in improving oil spill prevention, cleanup, liability, and restoration</a>.<br />
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<p><strong>3. The end of single-hull tankers</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="People observe a large tanker with a huge gash in its hull in dry dock." height="540" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/sks-satilla-hull-gash_texas-general-land-office_720.jpg" title="Evidence of the success of double-hull tankers: The Norwegian tanker SKS Satilla collided with a submerged oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009 and despite this damage, did not spill any oil. (Texas General Land Office)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Evidence of the success of double-hull tankers: The Norwegian tanker SKS Satilla collided with a submerged oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2009 and despite this damage, did not spill any oil. (Texas General Land Office)</div>
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<p>This image of a damaged ship is not showing the T/V <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>, and that is precisely the point. The <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> was an oil tanker with a single hull, which meant that when it hit ground, there was only one layer of metal for the rocks to tear through and release its tanks of oil.</p>
<p>But this 2009 photo shows the Norwegian tanker <span class="vessel">SKS Satilla</span> after it sustained a major gash in its double-sided hull—and didn't spill a drop of oil. Thanks to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, all new tankers and tank-barges were required to be built with double hulls to reduce the chance of another <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> situation. January 1, 2015 was the final deadline for <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/final-farewell-oil-tankers-single-hulls.html">phasing out single-hull tankers in U.S. waters</a>.<br />
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<p><strong>4. Oiled otters and angry kids</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Three pages of a 1989 letter and otter drawing from second grader Kelli Middlestead about the Exxon Valdez oil spill's effects on sea otters." height="308" src="../../../sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-otters-letter-second-grader_national-archives_720.jpg" title="Letter from Kelli Middlestead from the Franklin School, Burlingame, California to Walter Stieglitz the Regional Director of the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 04/13/1989. (U.S. National Archives)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Letter from Kelli Middlestead from the Franklin School, Burlingame, California to Walter Stieglitz the Regional Director of the Alaska Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 04/13/1989. (U.S. National Archives)</div>
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<p>Policymakers weren't the only ones to take note and take action in the wake of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill. Second grader Kelli Middlestead of the Franklin School in Burlingame, California, was quite upset that the oil spill was having such devastating effects on one of her favorite animals: sea otters. So, on April 13, 1989, <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/when-oil-spills-school-kids-take-note.html">she wrote and illustrated a letter to Walter Stieglitz</a>, Alaskan Regional Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to let him know she felt that the oil spill was "killing nature."</p>
<p>Indeed, sea otters in Prince William Sound weren’t declared recovered from the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill until 2013. <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/timeline-ecological-recovery-infographic.html">Other species still haven’t recovered</a> and in some sheltered beaches below the surface, <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/oil-gone.html">you can still find pockets of oil</a>.<br />
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<p><strong>5. Oil and killer whales do mix (unfortunately)</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Killer whales swimming alongside boats skimming oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill." height="487" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-orcas-skimmers_via-dan-lawn_state_alaska_720.jpg" title="Killer whales swimming in Prince William Sound alongside boats skimming oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill (State of Alaska, Dan Lawn)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Killer whales swimming in Prince William Sound alongside boats skimming oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill (State of Alaska, Dan Lawn)</div>
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<p>One of the species that has yet to recover after the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill is the killer whale, or orca. Before this oil spill, scientists and oil spill experts thought that these marine mammals were able to detect and avoid oil spills. That is, until <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/more-two-decades-later-have-kil">two killer whale pods were spotted swimming near or through oil from this spill</a>. One of them, a group nicknamed the "AT1 Transients" which feed primarily on marine mammals, suffered an abrupt 40% drop in population during the 18 months following the oil spill.</p>
<p>The second group of affected killer whales, the fish-eating "AB Pod Residents," lost 33% of their population, and while they have started to rebound, the transients are listed as a "depleted stock" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and may have as few as seven individuals remaining, down from a stable population of at least 22 in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Building on the lessons of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> and <span class="vessel">Deepwater Horizon</span> oil spills, <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/how-do-you-keep-killer-whales-away-oil-spill.html">NOAA has developed an emergency plan</a> for keeping the endangered Southern Resident killer whale populations of Washington and British Columbia away from potential oil spills.<br />
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<p><strong>6. Tuna troubles</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Top: A normal young yellowfin tuna. Bottom: A deformed yellowfin tuna exposed to oil during development." height="477" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/yellowfin-tuna-larvae-normal-top-oil-bottom_noaa_720.jpg" title="A normal yellowfin tuna larva not long after hatching (top), and a larva exposed to Deepwater Horizon crude oil as it developed in the egg (bottom). The oil-exposed larva shows a suite of abnormalities including excess fluid building up around the heart due to heart failure and poor growth of fins and eyes. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">A normal yellowfin tuna larva (top), and a larva exposed to Deepwater Horizon crude oil as it was developing (bottom). The oil-exposed larva shows a suite of abnormalities including excess fluid building up around the heart due to heart failure and poor growth of fins and eyes. (NOAA)</div>
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<p>How does crude oil affect fish populations? In the decades since the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill, teams of scientists have been studying the long-term effects of oil on fish such as herring, pink salmon, and tuna. In the first couple years after this spill, they found that oil was in fact toxic to developing fish, curving their spines, reducing the size of their eyes and jaws, and building up fluid around their hearts.</p>
<p>As part of this rich research tradition begun after the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill, <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/latest-research-finds-serious-heart-troubles-when-oil-and-young-tuna-mix.html">NOAA scientists helped uncover the precise mechanisms</a> for how this happens after the <span class="vessel">Deepwater Horizon</span> oil spill in 2010. The photo here shows both a normal yellowfin tuna larva not long after hatching (top) and a larva exposed to <span class="vessel">Deepwater Horizon</span> crude oil as it developed in the egg (bottom).</p>
<p>The oil-exposed larva exhibits a suite of abnormalities, showing how toxic chemicals in oil such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can affect the embryonic heart. By altering the embryonic heartbeat, exposure to oil can transform the shape of the heart, with implications for how well the fish can swim and survive as an adult.<br />
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<p><strong>7. Caught between a rock and a hard place</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Mearns Rock boulder in 2003." height="480" mearns="" rock="" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/mearns-rock-2003_noaa_720.jpg" title="The boulder nicknamed " /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The boulder nicknamed "Mearns Rock," located in the southwest corner of Prince William Sound, Alaska, was coated in oil which was not cleaned off after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. This image was taken in 2003. (NOAA)</div>
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<p>Not all impacts from an oil spill are as easy to see as deformed fish hearts. As NOAA scientists Alan Mearns and Gary Shigenaka have learned since 1989, picking out those impacts from the noisy background levels of variability in the natural environment become even harder when the global climate and ocean are undergoing unprecedented change as well.</p>
<p>Mearns, for example, has been <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/never-ending-history-life-rock.html">monitoring the boom and bust cycles of marine life</a> on a large boulder—nicknamed <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/mearns-rock-long-term-study-ecological-recovery.html">"Mearns Rock"</a>—that was oiled but not cleaned after the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill. What he and Shigenaka have observed on that rock and elsewhere in Prince William Sound has revealed large natural swings in the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/mearns-rock-watching-ecological-recovery-oil-spill/">numbers of mussels, seaweeds, and barnacles</a>, changes which are unrelated to the oil spill as they were occurring even in areas untouched by the spill.</p>
<p>Read more about how these <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/detecting-changes-changing-worl">scientists are exploring these challenges</a> and a <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/report-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-r">report on NOAA’s involvement in the wake of this spill</a>.<br />
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<p><strong>8. A game culture</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="A view of part of the board game On the Rocks: The Great Alaska Oil Spill with a map of Prince William Sound." height="689" src="../../../sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-oil-spill-board-game_credit-arlis_720.jpg" title="The game On the Rocks: The Great Alaska Oil Spill challenges players to clean all 200 miles of shoreline oiled by the Exxon Valdez -- and do so with limits on time and money. (Credit: Alaska Resources Library and Information Services, ARLIS)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The game On the Rocks: The Great Alaska Oil Spill challenges players to clean all 200 miles of shoreline oiled by the Exxon Valdez -- and do so with limits on time and money. (Credit: Alaska Resources Library and Information Services, ARLIS)</div>
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<p>Just as the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill touched <a href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/?FA=facts.QA">approximately 200 miles</a> of remote and rugged Alaskan shoreline, this spill also touched the hearts and minds of people far from the spill. References to it permeated mainstream American culture in surprising ways, inspiring a cookbook, a movie, a play, music, books, poetry, and even a board game.</p>
<p>That's right, a bartender from Valdez, Alaska, produced the board game "On the Rocks: The Great Alaska Oil Spill" as a result of his experience employed in spill cleanup. Players vied to be the first to wash all 200 miles of oiled shoreline without running out of time or money.<br />
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<p><strong>9. Carrying a piece of the ship</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Two pieces of metal from the ship Exxon Valdez." height="483" on="" rocks="" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-metal-from-ship_noaa_720_0.png" the="" title="The rusted and nondescript piece of steel on the left was a piece of the tanker Exxon Valdez, recovered by the salvage crew in 1989 and given to NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka. It was the beginning of his collection of Exxon Valdez artifacts and remains the item with the biggest personal value to him. The piece of metal on the right, inscribed with " /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The rusted and nondescript piece of steel on the left was a piece of the tanker Exxon Valdez, recovered by the salvage crew in 1989 and given to NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka. It was the beginning of his collection of Exxon Valdez artifacts and remains the item with the biggest personal value to him. The piece of metal on the right, inscribed with "On the rocks," is also metal from the ship but was purchased on eBay. (NOAA)</div>
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<p>One NOAA scientist in particular, Gary Shigenaka, who kicked off his career working on the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill, was personally touched by this spill as well. After receiving a small chunk of metal from the ship's salvage, Shigenaka began amassing a collection of <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>–related memorabilia, ranging from a highball glass commemorating the ship's launch in 1986 (ironic considering the <a href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/index.cfm?FA=facts.details">questions surrounding its captain being intoxicated</a> the night of the accident) to the front page of the local paper the day of the spill.<br />
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<p><strong>10. The infamous ship's fate</strong></p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Ship being dismantled on a beach in India." height="483" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-oriental-nicety-dismantled-alang-india-2012_credit-toxics-watch-alliance_720.jpg" title="Exxon Valdez/Exxon Mediterranean/Sea River Mediterranean/S/R Mediterranean/Mediterranean/Dong Fang Ocean/Oriental Nicety being dismantled in Alang, India, 2012. Photo by ToxicsWatch Alliance." width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Exxon Valdez/Exxon Mediterranean/Sea River Mediterranean/S/R Mediterranean/Mediterranean/Dong Fang Ocean/Oriental Nicety being dismantled in Alang, India, 2012. Photo by ToxicsWatch Alliance.</div>
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<p>After causing the largest-to-date oil spill in U.S. waters, what ever happened to the ill-fated <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> ship? It limped back for repairs to San Diego Bay where it was built, but by the time it was sea-ready again, the ship had been banned from Prince William Sound by the Oil Pollution Act and would instead be reassigned to the Mediterranean and Middle East and renamed accordingly, the <span class="vessel">Exxon Mediterranean</span>.</p>
<p>But a series of new names and bad luck continued to follow this ship, until it was finally sold for scrap in 2011. Under its final name, <span class="vessel">Oriental Nicety</span>, it was intentionally grounded at the infamous shipbreaking beaches of Alang, Gujarat, India, in 2012 and dismantled in its final resting place 23 years after the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> ran aground half a world away.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">3</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">10 Photos Showing the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and its Impacts</div></div></div>Wed, 23 Mar 2016 23:04:05 +0000ashley.braun1825 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govIt Took More Than the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill to Pass the Historic Oil Pollution Act of 1990https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/it-took-more-exxon-valdez-oil-s
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While the tanker Exxon Valdez spilled nearly 11 million gallons of oil into Alaskan waters, a trifecta of other sizable oil spills followed on its heels. These spills helped pave the way for passage of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which would vastly improve oil spill prevention, response, and restoration. (NOAA) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>AUGUST 18, 2015 -- If you, like many, believe oil shouldn't just be spilled without consequence into the ocean, then you, like us, should be grateful for a very important U.S. law known as the <a href="https://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d101:HR01465:@@@L&amp;summ2=m&amp;">Oil Pollution Act of 1990</a>.</p>
<p>Congress passed this legislation and President George H.W. Bush signed it into law 25 years ago on August 18, 1990, which was the summer after the <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill">tanker <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> hit ground</a> in Prince William Sound, Alaska.</p>
<p>On March 24, 1989, this tanker unleashed almost 11 million gallons of oil into relatively pristine Alaskan waters.</p>
<p>The powerful images from this huge oil spill—streams of dark oil spreading over the water, birds and sea otters coated in oil, workers in shiny plastic suits trying to clean the rocky coastline—both shocked and galvanized the nation.</p>
<p>They ultimately motivated the 101st Congress to investigate the causes of recent oil spills, develop guidelines to prevent and clean up pollution, and pass this valuable legislation.</p>
<p>Yet that monumental spill didn't fully drive home just how inadequate the patchwork of existing federal, state, and local laws were at addressing oil spill prevention, cleanup, liability, and restoration. Nearly a year and a half passed between the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill and the enactment of the Oil Pollution Act.</p>
<p>What happened in the mean time?</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-2 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The summer of 1989 experienced a trifecta of oil spills that drained any resources left from the ongoing spill response in Alaska. In rapid succession and over the course of less than 24 hours, three other oil tankers poured their cargo into U.S. coastal waters.</p>
<p>Between June 23 and 24, the <a href="https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6704">T/V <span class="vessel">World Prodigy</span></a> spilled 290,000 gallons of oil in Newport, Rhode Island; the <a href="https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/5121">T/V <span class="vessel">Presidente Rivera</span></a> emptied 307,000 gallons of oil into the Delaware River; and the <a href="https://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6706">T/V <span class="vessel">Rachel B</span> hit Tank Barge <span class="vessel">2514</span></a>, releasing 239,000 gallons of oil into Texas's Houston Ship Channel.</p>
<p>But these were far from the only oil spills plaguing U.S. waters during that time. Between the summers of 1989 and 1990, a series of ship collisions, groundings, and pipeline leaks spilled an additional 8 million gallons along the United States coastline. And that doesn't even include another million gallons of thick fuel oil released from a shore-side facility in the U.S. Virgin Islands after it was damaged by Hurricane Hugo.</p>
<p>Can you imagine—or perhaps remember—sitting at home watching the news and hearing again and again about yet another oil spill? And wondering what the government was going to do about it? Fortunately, in August of 1990, Congress voted unanimously to pass the Oil Pollution Act, which promised—and has largely delivered—significantly improved measures to prevent, prepare for, and respond to oil spills in U.S. waters.</p>
<p>Now, 25 years later, the shipping industry has undergone a makeover in oil spill prevention, preparedness, and response. A couple examples include the <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/final-farewell-oil-tankers-single-hulls.html">phasing out of tankers with easily punctured single hulls</a> and new regulations for driving tankers that require the use of knowledgeable pilots, maneuverable tug escorts, and an appropriate number of people on the ship’s bridge during transit.</p>
<p>Oil spill response research also received a boost thanks to the Oil Pollution Act, which reopened a <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/media/watching-chemical-dispersants-work-oil-spill-research-facility.html">national research facility</a> dedicated to this topic and shuttered just before the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill.</p>
<p>But perhaps one of the most important elements of this law required those responsible for oil spills to foot the bill for both cleaning up the oil and for economic and natural resource damages resulting from it.</p>
<p>This provision also requires oil companies to pay into the <a href="https://www.uscg.mil/npfc/About_NPFC/osltf.asp">Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund</a>, a fund theoretically created by Congress in 1986 but not given the necessary authorization until the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. This fund helps the U.S. Coast Guard—and indirectly, <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills">NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration</a>—pay for the upfront costs of responding to marine and coastal accidents that threaten to release hazardous materials such as oil and also of <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/environmental-restoration/natural-resource-damage-assessment.html">assessing the potential environmental and cultural impacts</a> (and implementing restoration to make up for them).</p>
<p>This week we're saying thank you to the Oil Pollution Act by highlighting some of its successes in restoring the environment after oil spills. You can join us on social media using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Thanks2OilPollutionAct?src=hash">#Thanks2OilPollutionAct</a>.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">4</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-2 field-type-image field-label-hidden">
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/13/dead-oiled-birds-after-exxon-valdez-spill_credit-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-trustee-council_356.jpg" width="356" height="254" alt="Birds killed as a result of oil from the Exxon Valdez spill." title="Thanks to the Oil Pollution Act, federal and state agencies can more easily evaluate the full environmental impacts of oil spills -- and then enact restoration to make up for that harm. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
Thanks to the Oil Pollution Act, federal and state agencies can more easily evaluate the full environmental impacts of oil spills -- and then enact restoration to make up for that harm. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">What It Took to Pass the Oil Pollution Act of 1990</div></div></div>Mon, 17 Aug 2015 23:30:55 +0000ashley.braun1544 at https://response.restoration.noaa.gov25 Years Later: Timeline of Recovery from Exxon Valdez Oil Spillhttps://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/timeline-ecological-recovery-infographic.html
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Twenty-five years after what used to be the largest oil spill in U.S. waters, we show the timeline of recovery for marine life and habitats following the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill</a>.</p>
<div align="center"><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-timeline-of-recovery-5jun14_noaa.png"><img alt="Illustrated timeline of ecological recovery in 25 years since the Exxon Valdez oil spill." height="382" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-timeline-of-recovery-5jun14_noaa_720.png" title="25 Years Later: Timeline of Recovery from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill." width="720" /></a>
<div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;"><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-timeline-of-recovery-5jun14_noaa.png">Click on infographic to view larger. </a></div>
<p> <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-timeline-of-recovery-5jun14_noaa.png"> </a></p></div>
<p><em>Above is a timeline showing when natural resources appear to be recovered, as determined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA made this determination with data taken from the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council's 2010 Update on Injured Resources and Services (<a href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us">www.evostc.state.ak.us</a>), U.S. Geological Survey, and NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration. This infographic was produced by NOAA.</em></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/25-anniv-report">Read a report by Gary Shigenaka</a> summarizing information about the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill and response along with NOAA's role and research on its recovery over the past 25 years.</strong></p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">2</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">25 Years Later: Timeline of Recovery from Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</div></div></div>Mon, 24 Mar 2014 16:15:54 +0000ashley.braun904 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govRemembering the Exxon Valdez: Collecting 25 Years of Memories and Memorabiliahttps://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/remembering-exxon-valdez-collec
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>MARCH 24, 2014 -- On May 24, 1989, NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka was on board the NOAA ship <span class="vessel">Fairweather</span> in Prince William Sound, Alaska.</p>
<p>It had been two months since the tanker <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>, now tied up for repairs nearby, had run aground and <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/noaa-long-term-study.html">spilled nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil</a> into the waters the <span class="vessel">Fairweather</span> was now sailing through.</p>
<p>That day Shigenaka and the other NOAA scientists aboard the <span class="vessel">Fairweather</span> were collecting data about the status of fish after the oil spill. Little did he know he would be collecting something else too: a little piece of history that would inspire his 25-year-long collection of curiosities related to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>.</p>
<p>Shigenaka's collection of items would eventually grow to include everything from tourist trinkets poking fun at the spill to safety award memorabilia given to the tanker's crew years before it grounded.</p>
<p>This unusual collection's first item came to Shigenaka back on that May day in 1989, when the NOAA scientists on their ship were flagged down by the crippled tanker's salvage crew. Come here, they said. We think you're going to want to see this.</p>
<p>Apparently, while the salvage crew was busy making repairs to the damaged <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>, they had noticed big schools of fish swimming in and out of the holes in the ship. So Shigenaka and a few others went aboard the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>, putting a small boat inside the flooded cargo holds and throwing their nets into the waters. They were unsuccessful at catching the fish moving in and out of the ship, but Shigenaka and the other NOAA scientists didn't leave the infamous tanker empty-handed.</p>
<p>They noticed that the salvage workers who had initially invited them on board were cutting away steel frames hanging off of the ship. Naturally, they asked if they could have one of the steel frames, which they had cut into pieces a few inches long so that each of these fish-counting scientists could take home a piece of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>.</p>
<p>After Shigenaka took this nondescript chunk of steel back home to Seattle, Wash., he heard rumors about the existence of another item that piqued his interest. The Exxon Shipping Company had allegedly produced safety calendars which featured the previously exemplary tanker <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> during the very month that it would cause the largest oil spill in U.S. waters at the time—March 1989. Feeling a bit like <em>Moby Dick</em>'s Captain Ahab chasing down a mythical white whale, Shigenaka's efforts were finally rewarded when he saw one of these calendars pop up on eBay. He bought it. And that was just the beginning.</p>
<p>This young biologist who began his career in oil spill response with the fateful <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill would find both his professional and personal life shaped by this monumental spill. Today, Shigenaka has an alert set up so that he is notified when anything related to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> shows up on eBay. He will occasionally bid when something catches his eye, mostly rarer items from the days before the oil spill.</p>
<p>To commemorate the 25 years since the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill, take a peek at what is in Gary Shigenaka's personal collection of <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> artifacts.</p>
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<div align="center"><img alt="Two pieces of metal from the ship Exxon Valdez." height="483" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-metal-from-ship_noaa_720_0.png" title="The rusted and nondescript piece of steel on the left was a piece of the tanker Exxon Valdez, recovered by the salvage crew in 1989 and given to NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka. It was the beginning of his collection of Exxon Valdez artifacts and remains the item with the biggest personal value to him. The piece of metal on the right, inscribed with “On the rocks,” is also metal from the ship but was purchased on eBay. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The rusted and nondescript piece of steel on the left was a piece of the tanker Exxon Valdez, recovered by the salvage crew in 1989 and given to NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka. It was the beginning of his collection of Exxon Valdez artifacts and remains the item with the biggest personal value to him. The piece of metal on the right, inscribed with “On the rocks,” is also metal from the ship but was purchased on eBay. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="This belt buckle commemorates a safety and performance award from 1987 for the Exxon Valdez." height="448" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-safety-award-belt-buckle_1987_noaa_720_0.png" title="This belt buckle commemorates a safety and performance award from 1987 for the Exxon Valdez. It was likely given to a member of its crew. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">This belt buckle commemorates a safety and performance award from 1987 for the Exxon Valdez. It was likely given to a member of its crew. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="A high ball glass engraved with the image and name of the tanker Exxon Valdez along with the date September 20, 1986." height="905" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-shot-glass_1986_noaa-720.png" title="A high ball glass engraved with the image and name of the tanker Exxon Valdez along with the date September 20, 1986, the year the ship was first launched and potentially the date of its christening. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">A high ball glass engraved with the image and name of the tanker Exxon Valdez along with the date September 20, 1986, the year the ship was first launched and potentially the date of its christening. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="The autograph of Joseph Hazelwood on a commemorative James Cook envelope with a 'First Day of Issue' stamp featuring Captain Cook." height="399" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-captain-joseph-hazelwood-autograph_720.png" title="The autograph of Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the tanker Exxon Valdez when it ran aground. Someone in Cordova, Alaska, perhaps a stamp collector, got his autograph on a commemorative James Cook envelope with a 'First Day of Issue' stamp featuring Captain Cook. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The autograph of Joseph Hazelwood, captain of the tanker Exxon Valdez when it ran aground. Someone in Cordova, Alaska, perhaps a stamp collector, got his autograph on a commemorative James Cook envelope with a 'First Day of Issue' stamp featuring Captain Cook. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="A framed copy of the front page of the local newspaper in Valdez, Alaska, first reporting on the Exxon Valdez’s grounding and oil spill on March 24, 1989." height="962" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/valdez-newspaper_noaa_720.png" title="The local newspaper in Valdez, Alaska, first reports on the Exxon Valdez’s grounding and oil spill on March 24, 1989. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The local newspaper in Valdez, Alaska, first reports on the Exxon Valdez’s grounding and oil spill on March 24, 1989. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="A jar of oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill labeled with general information about the spill." height="782" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-jar-of-oil_720.png" title="A jar of oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill which was gathered from a beach in Alaska. After the spill, people nearby would collect vials of the oil and sell them in tourist shops. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">A jar of oil from the Exxon Valdez oil spill which was gathered from a beach in Alaska. After the spill, people nearby would collect vials of the oil and sell them in tourist shops. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="Three patches collected from Exxon commemorating its operations in Alaska and Prince William Sound." height="229" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-three-patches_noaa_720.png" title="Three patches collected from Exxon commemorating its operations in Alaska and Prince William Sound. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Three patches collected from Exxon commemorating its operations in Alaska and Prince William Sound. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="A blue baseball cap with Exxon Valdez and the Exxon Shipping Company logo." height="480" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-hat_noaa_720.png" title="An official piece of Exxon Valdez logowear issued by the Exxon Shipping Company. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">An official piece of Exxon Valdez logowear issued by the Exxon Shipping Company. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="A blue enveloped postmarked Cordova, Alaska in May 1989 with ink stamps from NOAA and salvage ships." height="406" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-stamps-noaa-spill-salvage-blue-envelope-may1989_720.png" title="Dr. Bob Clark, chief scientist of the NOAA fisheries damage assessment for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, had rubber stamps created for each of the vessels and helicopters working the spill response, as well as for NOAA. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Dr. Bob Clark, chief scientist of the NOAA fisheries damage assessment for the Exxon Valdez oil spill, had rubber stamps created for each of the vessels and helicopters working the spill response, as well as for NOAA. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="A crystal paperweight commemorating Team Alaska's 1989 Exxon Valdez operations." height="716" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-crystal-paperweight-1989_noaa_720.png" title="A fancy paperweight commemorating 'Team Alaska's' 1989 Exxon Valdez operations. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">A fancy paperweight commemorating 'Team Alaska's' 1989 Exxon Valdez operations. (NOAA)</div>
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<div align="center"><img alt="The Exxon Shipping Company official ink stamp featuring the tanker Exxon Valdez on a postmarked envelope." height="400" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-tanker-stamp-envelope-march1988_720.png" title="The Exxon Shipping Company created a rubber stamp featuring the tanker Exxon Valdez. (NOAA)" width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">The Exxon Shipping Company created a rubber stamp featuring the tanker Exxon Valdez. (NOAA)</div>
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</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-1 field-type-image field-label-hidden">
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/13/exxon-valdez-life-saver-gary-shigenaka-1989_noaa_472.jpg" width="472" height="340" alt="A man in a tyvek suit stands on a ship next to a life preserver in Alaska." title="NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka in 1989 aboard the tanker Exxon Valdez itself. In retrospect, Shigenaka joked that he should have made off with the ship&#039;s life preserver for his eventual collection of artifacts related to the ship and spill. (NOAA)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka in 1989 aboard the tanker Exxon Valdez itself. In retrospect, Shigenaka joked that he should have made off with the ship's life preserver for his eventual collection of artifacts related to the ship and spill. (NOAA) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">6</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-2 field-type-image field-label-hidden">
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In an ironic twist of fate, the Exxon Shipping Company’s safety calendar featured the tanker Exxon Valdez in March 1989, the same month the ship ran aground. Image: From the collection of Gary Shigenaka. </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Remembering the Exxon Valdez: Collecting 25 Years of Memories and Memorabilia</div></div></div>Fri, 21 Mar 2014 22:29:03 +0000ashley.braun903 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govReport: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Revisited 25 Years Later https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/report-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-r
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/6/ExxonValdez.png" width="472" height="340" alt="Aerial view of the Exxon Valdez, surrounded by oil boom." /> <div class="node-image-caption">
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>March 24, 2014 marks the 25th anniversary of the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill</a>.</p>
<p>NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&amp;R) remembers the fateful spill, its devastating impacts, and the many challenges that the spill response presented—geographic remoteness, rugged shorelines, severe weather, sensitive habitats, and threatened commercial and subsistence fisheries.</p>
<p>OR&amp;R's new report, <strong><em>Twenty-Five Years After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</em></strong>, describes the accident, the multi-agency response, and the catastrophic toll that this spill had on the Alaskan environment.</p>
<p>Authored by NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka, the report revisits the details of the spill, tells the story of NOAA's role in spill response from its beginnings in the mid-1970s, and then explains how the two came together during the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill in a technical effort that would span a quarter century and outlive the ship itself.</p>
<p><strong>Download the report: </strong><a href="../../../sites/default/files/Exxon_Valdez_25YearsAfter_508_0.pdf">Twenty-Five Years After the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: NOAA's Scientific Support, Monitoring, and Research</a> [PDF, 11MB]</p>
<p>The early spill response support that NOAA provided in 1989 includes the same general products and services that it offers today—although the current versions boast advanced scientific underpinnings. These included:</p>
<ul><li>oil overflights and mapping.</li>
<li>modeling the spill's trajectory.</li>
<li>identifying plants, animals, habitats, and other resources initially at risk from the spill.</li>
</ul><p>As the spill and its response grew in magnitude and complexity, NOAA worked with other government agencies to provide technical expertise on a broad range of issues, such as:</p>
<ul><li>evaluating the feasibility and effectiveness of cleanup methods.</li>
<li>chemically determining the sources of oil found in the environment.</li>
<li>assessing the safety of subsistence seafood.</li>
<li>estimating the quantity and modeling the fate of the spilled oil.</li>
<li>managing the enormous volumes of information that the response generated.</li>
</ul></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-2 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Monitoring the Shoreline</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-2 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>During the first year of the response, aggressive shoreline cleanup included the widespread use of high-pressure hot water to remove persistent oil from the beaches. Recognizing that the use of methods like this might itself inflict harm to treated intertidal communities independent of that from oil, NOAA began a decade-long <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/our-monitoring-study.html">shoreline monitoring program</a> that yielded a number of insights into oil and cleanup impacts and the nature of recovery on the intertidal shorelines of Prince William Sound.</p>
<p>Although the early results of the monitoring confirmed that aggressive cleanup did inflict a greater degree of impact on shoreline communities than oil alone, the affected organisms appeared to compensate for the deficit within a two- to three-year period. Within three to six years, biological communities on oiled shorelines were comparable to those on unoiled reference beaches. Life in the intertidal zone is literally rough and tumble, and the organisms that favor that niche have life cycles and employ reproductive and competitive strategies that can quickly repopulate disturbed areas—such as those caused by oil spills and cleanup.</p>
<p>However, monitoring over the long term revealed a high degree of natural variability in intertidal communities that was unrelated to the oil spill, as large changes were documented from year to year even at those sites known to have been unaffected by the oil spill. <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/detecting-changes-changing-world.html">This translated into a substantial monitoring challenge</a>: i.e., distinguishing between shifts in biological communities attributable to inherent natural variability from changes caused by the spill. How the NOAA research team accomplished this is explained in the report.</p>
<h5>Experimental Investigations</h5>
<p>After a decade, NOAA's long-term monitoring program wound down and the scientific team transitioned to a set of experimental investigations focusing on questions that arose from the 10 years of study of <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> shoreline impacts. For example: Would an intense pulse of disturbance like an oil spill and cleanup set in motion a series of successional "waves" in the biological communities that would recede only slowly with time? Would aggressive cleanup on a gravel beach physically alter the habitat to the extent that biological recovery would be delayed?</p>
<p>In 1999 and 2000, two experiments were launched in Kasitsna Bay (Cook Inlet) and Lower Herring Bay (Prince William Sound) to specifically address these questions. The answers would both match anticipated outcomes—and surprise us. The experiments and their results are summarized in the 25-year report.</p>
<h5>What We Observed</h5>
<p>The themes that emerged from NOAA's long-term monitoring and the subsequent experimental research were the following:</p>
<ul><li>impact.</li>
<li>recovery.</li>
<li>variability.</li>
<li>subtle connection to large-scale oceanic influences that may help to explain at least a portion of the variability.</li>
</ul><p>None of this, however, would have been apparent in the absence of the long-term monitoring effort. This in itself is an important lesson learned from the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> experience: that monitoring and research, often viewed as an unnecessary luxury in the context of a large spill response, are useful, even essential, for framing the scientific and practical lessons learned.</p>
<h5>Implications for the Present and Future</h5>
<p>As we look forward, to the future, and with the <span class="vessel">Deepwater Horizon</span> experience in our recent past, we can incorporate and apply lessons of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> long-term program into how we will support response decisions and define impact and recovery.</p>
<p>The Arctic is a region of intense interest and scrutiny as oil production becomes a reality, and climate change opens previously inaccessible waters and dramatically shifts baselines of environmental normality there. If and when something bad happens, how do we discern the impact and determine what recovery means, if our reference point is a rapidly moving target? To what do we restore an impacted habitat when the unimpacted reference ... is not?</p>
<p>In a sad and somehow fitting footnote to the recounting of the science and monitoring that have transpired over the last 25 years, and why it is still relevant to the future of oil spill response and assessment, <a href="https://usresponserestoration.wordpress.com/2014/03/19/after-the-big-spill-what-happened-to-the-ship-exxon-valdez/">the tale of the fate of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span></a>, the tanker itself, is provided as the coda to the story.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">2</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">25 Year Report on Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-3 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Resources:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/resources/publications" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Publications</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-3 field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Subtitle 3:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">More Information about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-3 field-type-text-long field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Text 3:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill:</a> Find all of our information and stories on the grounding, spill, response, and research in the wake of the 1989 <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill.</p>
<p><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/timeline-ecological-recovery-infographic.html ">Timeline of Recovery:</a> Take a look at this infographic to see if and when nearly 30 types of fish, wildlife, and habitats have recovered in the 25 years after this monumental spill.</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:48:45 +0000donna.l.roberts894 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govAfter the Big Spill, What Happened to the Ship Exxon Valdez?https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/after-big-spill-what-happened-s
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The last days of the Exxon Valdez: in the San Diego shipyard before the first name change. Photo from the collection of Gary Shigenaka, NOAA. </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>MARCH 19, 2014 -- A popular myth exists that it is bad luck to rename a boat.</p>
<p>It is unclear whether this applies to "boats" as big as a 987-foot-long oil tanker, but it is possible that the ship originally known as the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> might be used to argue that the answer is "yes."</p>
<p>When the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> was delivered to Exxon on December 11, 1986, it was the largest vessel ever built on the west coast of the U.S.</p>
<p>On July 30, 1989, four months after it ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and caused the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill">then-largest oil spill in U.S. waters</a>, the crippled <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> entered dry dock at National Steel and Shipbuilding in San Diego—its original birthplace.</p>
<p>The trip south from Prince William Sound had not been without incident. Divers discovered hull plates hanging from the frame 70 feet below the surface that had to be cut away, and a 10 mile oil slick trailing behind the ship for a time prevented it from entering San Diego Bay.</p>
<h5>New Law, New Name</h5>
<p>Nearly a year and $30 million later, the ship emerged for sea trials as the <span class="vessel">Exxon Mediterranean</span>. The <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> had suffered the ignominy—and corporate hardship—of effectively being singled out in U.S. legislation (<a href="https://www.epw.senate.gov/opa90.pdf">the Oil Pollution Act of 1990</a> [PDF]) and banned from a specific U.S. body of water:</p>
<blockquote><p>SEC. 5007.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>LIMITATION. Notwithstanding any other law, tank vessels that have spilled more than 1,000,000 gallons of oil into the marine environment after March 22, 1989, are prohibited from operating on the navigable waters of Prince William Sound, Alaska.</p></blockquote>
<blockquote><p>(33 U.S.C. § 2737)</p></blockquote>
<p>With this banishment institutionalized in U.S. law, Exxon Shipping Company shifted the operational area for the ship to the Mediterranean and the Middle East and renamed it accordingly. In 1993, Exxon spun off its shipping arm to a subsidiary, Sea River Maritime, Inc., and the <span class="vessel">Exxon Mediterranean</span> became the <span class="vessel">Sea River Mediterranean</span>. This was shortened to <span class="vessel">S/R Mediterranean</span>.</p>
<p>In 2002, the ship was re-assigned to Asian routes and then temporarily mothballed in an undisclosed location.</p>
<h5>A Ship Singled Out?</h5>
<p>Exxon filed suit in federal court challenging the provisions of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 that had banned its tanker from the Prince William Sound trade route. In November 2002, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Oil Pollution Act and its vessel prohibition provision (the Justice Department noting that to that time, 18 vessels had been prevented from entering Prince William Sound). While Sea River had argued that the law unfairly singled out and punished its tanker, and that there was no reason to believe that a tanker guilty of spilling in the past would spill in the future, the three-judge panel disagreed unanimously.</p>
<p>The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the landmark law resulting from the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill, legislated the phase-out of all single-hulled tankers from U.S. waters by 2015. On October 21, 2003, single-hulled tankers carrying heavy oils were banned by the European Union. A complete ban on single-hulled tankers was to be phased in on an accelerated schedule in 2005 and 2010. There remains pressure to eliminate single-hulled tankers from the oil trade worldwide, so their days are clearly numbered.</p>
<p>In 2005, the <span class="vessel">S/R Mediterranean</span> was reflagged under the Marshall Islands after having remained a U.S.-flagged ship for 20 years (reportedly in the hopes that it eventually would have been permitted to re-enter the Alaska – U.S. West Coast – Panama route for which it had been designed). The ship's name became simply <span class="vessel">Mediterranean</span>.</p>
<p>In 2008, ExxonMobil and its infamous tanker finally parted ways when Sea River sold the <span class="vessel">Mediterranean</span> to a Hong Kong-based shipping company, Hong Kong Bloom Shipping Co., Ltd. The ship was once again renamed, to <span class="vessel">Dong Fang Ocean</span>, and reflagged under Panamanian registry. Its days as a tanker also came to an end, as the <span class="vessel">Dong Fang Ocean</span> was converted into a bulk ore carrier at Guangzhou CSSC-Oceanline-GWS Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., China.</p>
<p>The <span class="vessel">Dong Fang Ocean</span> labored in relative anonymity in its new incarnation until November 29, 2010. On that day, it collided with another bulk carrier, the <span class="vessel">Aali</span> in the Yellow Sea off Chengshan, China. Both vessels were severely damaged; the <span class="vessel">Dong Fang Ocean</span> lost both anchors, and the <span class="vessel">Aali</span> sustained damage to its ballast tanks. The <span class="vessel">Dong Fang Ocean</span> moved to the port of Longyan with assistance by tugs.</p>
<h5>The End Is Near</h5>
<p>With this last misfortune, the final countdown to oblivion began in earnest for the vessel-formerly-known-as-<span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>. In March 2011, the ship was sold for scrap to a U.S.-based company called Global Marketing Systems (GMS). GMS in turn re-sold it to the Chinese-owned Best Oasis, Ltd., for $16 million.</p>
<div align="center"><img alt="Ship being dismantled on a beach in India." height="483" src="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/exxon-valdez-oriental-nicety-dismantled-alang-india-2012_credit-toxics-watch-alliance_720.jpg" title="Exxon Valdez/Exxon Mediterranean/Sea River Mediterranean/S/R Mediterranean/Mediterranean/Dong Fang Ocean/Oriental Nicety being dismantled in Alang, India, 2012. Photo by ToxicsWatch Alliance." width="720" /><div style="width: 720px; font-style: italic; font-size: 0.8em;">Exxon Valdez/Exxon Mediterranean/Sea River Mediterranean/S/R Mediterranean/Mediterranean/Dong Fang Ocean/Oriental Nicety being dismantled in Alang, India, 2012. Photo by ToxicsWatch Alliance.</div>
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<p>Intending to bring the <span class="vessel">Oriental Nicety</span>, as it had been renamed yet one last time, ashore at the <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/after-big-spill-what-happened-s">infamous shipbreaking beaches of Alang, Gujarat, India</a>, Best Oasis was blocked by a petition filed by Delhi-based ToxicsWatch Alliance with the Indian Supreme Court on the grounds that the ship could be contaminated with asbestos and PCBs. ToxicsWatch Alliance invoked the Basel Convention, which restricts the transboundary movements of hazardous wastes for disposal. However, an environmental audit required by the court showed no significant contamination, and in July 2012, the <span class="vessel">Oriental Nicety</span> was cleared to be brought ashore for its final disposition. The ship was reportedly beached on August 2, 2012. Shanta Barley, writing for <em>Nature</em>, penned a wry obituary as a lead-in to her article about the last days of the ship:</p>
<blockquote><p>The <span class="vessel">Oriental Nicety</span> (née <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>), born in 1986 in San Diego, California, has died after a long struggle with bad publicity.</p></blockquote>
<p><strong>Use Twitter to chat directly with NOAA marine biologist Gary Shigenaka about the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> and its impacts on Alaska's marine life and waters on Monday, March 24 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. Follow the conversation at <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23exxonvaldez25">#ExxonValdez25</a> and get the details: <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/tweetchat-25-years-exxon-valdez.html">http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/tweetchat-25-years-exxon-valdez.html</a>.</strong></p>
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Exxon Mediterranean in Trieste, Italy, July 1991. Photo by Arki Wagner, used with permission. </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">After the Big Spill, What Happened to the Ship Exxon Valdez?</div></div></div>Wed, 19 Mar 2014 00:21:59 +0000ashley.braun893 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govLooking Back: What Led up to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill?https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/looking-back-what-led-exxon-val
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>MARCH 12, 2014 -- The <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill</a> occurred on March 24, 1989. This spill was a turning point for the nation and a major event in the history of <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov">NOAA’s Office of Response and Restoration</a>. It also led to major changes in the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/legacy-exxon-valdez-spill.html">federal approach to oil spill response</a>, and the technical, policy, and legal outcomes continue to reverberate today. But before this monumental oil spill happened, there were a series of events around the world building up to this moment. Now, 25 years later, join us for a look at the history which set the stage for this spill.</p>
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<h5>1968</h5>
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<p>Atlantic Richfield Company and Humble Oil (which would later become Exxon) confirmed the presence of a vast oil field at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Plans for a pipeline were proposed but held up by various environmental challenges.</p>
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<h5>1973</h5>
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<p>The 1973 oil embargo plunged the nation into a serious energy crisis, and Alaskan oil became a national security issue. On November 16, 1973, President Richard Nixon signed the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/">Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act</a>, which prohibited any further legal challenges. This pipeline would connect the developing oil fields of Alaska with the port town of Valdez, where oil could be shipped out on tankers through the Gulf of Alaska.</p>
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<h5>1977</h5>
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<p>On August 1, 1977, the tanker <span class="vessel">ARCO Juneau</span> sailed out of Valdez with the first load of North Slope crude oil.</p>
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<h5>1981</h5>
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<p>How prepared for oil spills was Valdez? Despite complaints from the State of Alaska, Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the corporation running the Trans-Alaska Pipeline,<strong> decides to disband its full-time oil spill team and reassign those employees to other operations</strong>.</p>
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<h5>1982</h5>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/oil-spill/frequently-asked-questions/">National Contingency Plan</a> (NCP) is updated from the original 1968 version, which provided the first comprehensive system of accident reporting, spill containment, and cleanup in the United States. The 1982 revisions formally codified NOAA's role as coordinator of scientific activities during oil spill emergencies. NOAA designated nine <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/about/orr-field-staff.html">Scientific Support Coordinators</a>, or SSCs, to <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/resources/fosc-guide.html">coordinate scientific information and provide critical support</a> to the U.S. Coast Guard, and other federal on-scene commanders.</p>
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<h5>1984</h5>
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<p>In May 1984, Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) field officers in Valdez write a detailed memo warning that pollution abatement equipment has been dismantled and <strong>Alyeska, the pipeline company, does not have the ability to handle a big spill</strong>. This document will become part of the Congressional investigation of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill. Later in 1984, Alyeska conducts an oil spill response practice drill that federal and state officials deem a failure. In December 1984, DEC staffers in Valdez write another lengthy memo to their administrators detailing shortcomings in Alyeska's spill response program.</p>
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<h5>1986</h5>
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<p>The T/V <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> is delivered to Exxon in December of 1986 and makes its maiden voyage to Alaska. When the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> first arrived at the Port of Valdez later that month, the town celebrated its arrival with a party. "We were quite proud of having that tanker named after the city of Valdez," recalls former Mayor John Devens.</p>
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<h5>1987</h5>
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<p>Captain Joseph Hazelwood becomes master of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span>, which then <strong>earns Exxon Fleet safety awards for 1987 and 1988</strong>. In June 1987, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation approves Alyeska's contingency plan without holding another drill. The plan details how Alyeska would handle an 8.4 million gallon oil spill in Prince William Sound. Alyeska says:</p>
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<blockquote><p>"It is highly unlikely that a spill of this magnitude would occur. Catastrophic events of this nature are further reduced because the majority of tankers calling on Port Valdez are of American registry and all of these are piloted by licensed masters or pilots."</p></blockquote>
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<h5>1988</h5>
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<p>The big news in Alaska is the lingering low price of oil. Nearly one in 10 jobs disappears from the Alaska economy. Oil output peaks on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline at 2.1 million barrels of oil a day.</p>
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<h5>January 1989</h5>
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<p>In January 1989 the Valdez terminal has a couple major tests of spill response capacity with two small oil spills, which draw attention to cleanup problems and the condition of their tanker fleet. Alyeska vows to increase its response capacity and decides to buy a high-tech, 122-foot-long skimmer, at a cost of $5 million. The skimmer is scheduled for delivery in August 1990. The company also replaces four 21-foot response boats and arranges to purchase thousands of feet of extra boom for delivery later in the year.</p>
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<h5>March 1989</h5>
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<p>On March 22, the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> arrives at the Valdez Marine Terminal, Berth 5 and begins discharging ballast (water used for balancing cargo) and loading crude oil. Loading is completed late on March 23 and a little after 9:00 p.m. the tanker leaves Valdez with 53 million gallons of crude, bound for California. Early on March 24, 1989, a little over three hours after leaving port, the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> strikes Bligh Reef, <a href="http://incidentnews.noaa.gov/incident/6683">spilling approximately 10.9 million gallons of oil</a> into Prince William Sound.</p>
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<hr /><p><em>Join us on March 24, 2014 at 12:00 p.m. Pacific/3:00 p.m. Eastern as we remember the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill 25 years later. Use Twitter to ask questions of NOAA biologist Gary Shigenaka and learn about this spill's impacts on Alaska's environment. <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/tweetchat-25-years-exxon-valdez.html">Get the details.</a></em></p>
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In an ironic twist of fate, the Exxon Shipping Company's safety calendar featured the T/V Exxon Valdez in March 1989. Image: From the collection of Gary Shigenaka. </div>
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A full view of the Exxon Shipping Company's safety calendar, which featured the Exxon Valdez the same month the ship ran aground, in March 1989. Image: From the collection of Gary Shigenaka. </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Looking Back: What Led up to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill?</div></div></div>Tue, 11 Mar 2014 22:54:14 +0000ashley.braun877 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govMearns Rock: A Long-Term Study of Ecological Recoveryhttps://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/mearns-rock-long-term-study-ecological-recovery.html
<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Mearns Rock: A Long-Term Study of Ecological Recovery</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-1 field-type-image field-label-hidden">
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/13/mearns-rock-2012-explorer-team-alaska_noaa-mearns-356.jpg" width="356" height="266" alt="The 2012 study team observes Mearns Rock in Prince William Sound, Alaska." title="The study team observes Mearns Rock in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on June 5, 2012. Mearns Rock is left of center. (NOAA)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
The study team observes Mearns Rock in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on June 5, 2012. Mearns Rock is left of center. (NOAA) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">5</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>How does marine life recover from a major, one-time stress, such as an oil spill?</p>
<p>In an attempt to understand the answer, NOAA scientists began a long-term study of "Mearns Rock," a large boulder that was oiled but not cleaned during the <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill</a> in March 1989. The boulder is located on rocky shoreline in the intertidal zone at Snug Harbor on Knight Island, Prince William Sound, Alaska.</p>
<p>NOAA biologists have been <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/mearns-rock-watching-ecological-recovery-oil-spill/">photographing this boulder</a>—and the animals and plants growing on it—each year (in late June or early July) since 1990. They concluded that after three to four years, the intertidal marine life had recovered within the range of natural variation. However, they are continuing the photographic survey of Mearns Rock to explore further this dynamic variation in ecosystems.</p>
<p>Along with Mearns Rock, they have been monitoring conspicuous shoreline features at other non-oiled and oiled-and-cleaned locations from the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill. (Note that we have not yet provided photos of a "control" site, a boulder on a similar shoreline that was not oiled to compare with Mearns Rock.)</p>
<p><strong>View our <a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/mearns-rock-watching-ecological-recovery-oil-spill/">photo gallery of Mearns Rock</a></strong> and watch its ecological recovery from the 1989 <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-2 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Ideas to Consider</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-2 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><ul><li>How long should we continue to take photos of this boulder?</li>
<li>You may want to create a photo time series of your own. Each year, photograph a boulder at low tide (or another environmental feature if you don't live near the ocean). Then, compare the photos to see how the boulder's marine life changes over time.</li>
<li>For a class project, teachers may want to print (on a color printer) the large images of Mearns Rock. Then, cut out the images and ask your students to put them in chronological order. How closely matched are the students' results with the actual chronological order of the photos?</li>
<!--<li>Try our <a href="http://archive.orr.noaa.gov/mearnsrock_graphing"><strong>Graphing Project</strong></a>. Using photos of Mearns Rock, you'll graph the changes over time in the amount of rockweed (a brown seaweed), mussels, and barnacles covering this boulder.</li>--></ul></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-3 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>More Information on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill and Ecological Recovery</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-3 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/response-exxon-valdez.html" target="_self">Response to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> Spill:</a> A description of NOAA OR&amp;R's involvement in the response to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill.</p>
<p><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/history-future-mearns-rock-ecology.html">The Never-ending History of Life on a Rock:</a> Learn more about the back story and the future of the Mearns Rock project, which includes an unexpected legacy for citizen science in Alaska.</p>
<p><a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/features/july09/mearnsrock.html" target="_blank">The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill of 1989: From Environmental Infamy to a Sound Legacy:</a> NOAA OR&amp;R's 20th annual survey of Prince William Sound, Alaska, reveals "The Year of the Mussel" and other interesting trends from Mearns Rock.</p>
<p><a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/oilymess/welcome.html">Prince William's Oily Mess: A Tale of Recovery:</a> Check out a case study in the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill, accompanied by a set of supporting resources, including student and teacher guides, an interactive quiz, an exercise with real data, and an interview with National Ocean Service scientist, Dr. Alan Mearns.</p>
<p><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/noaa-long-term-study.html">NOAA's Long-Term Monitoring Program in Prince William Sound, Alaska:</a> From 1990 through 2000, OR&amp;R biologists conducted a long-term ecological study to monitor the area of Prince William Sound, Alaska, affected by the 1989 <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill.</p>
<p><a href="https://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/shorezone/">Alaska ShoreZone Coastal Mapping and Imagery:</a> Hosted by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, ShoreZone allows you to view habitat maps, photographs, and videos of the southeastern and central Alaskan coastline, including Prince William Sound.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.seaweedsofalaska.com/">Seaweeds of Alaska:</a> This searchable database contains photos and when available, detailed life histories for many seaweed species found in Alaska.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-3 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Resources:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/resources/education" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Education</a></div></div></div>Thu, 14 Jun 2012 21:00:28 +0000ashley.braun497 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govHow Toxic Is Oil?https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/how-toxic-oil
<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">How Toxic Is Oil?</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>Assessing the toxicity of oil is a tricky business. The main difficulty is that <strong>"oil" is a mixture of many different chemicals</strong>, and no two oils are the same. Proportions of chemicals vary even within a single category of oil, like crude oil or diesel oil.</p>
<p>For example, Arabian crude oil, Louisiana crude oil, and Alaska North Slope crude oil represent very different mixtures that will behave differently in the environment and have different toxic effects to exposed organisms.</p>
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/ashley.braun/dead-oiled-sea-otter_exxon-valdez-oil-spill-trustee-council_0.jpg" width="356" height="238" alt="Photo: Dead oiled sea otter after the Exxon Valdez oil spill." title="Dead oiled sea otter after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
Dead oiled sea otter after the Exxon Valdez oil spill. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">5</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oil Spills</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>It was Alaska North Slope crude oil that spilled from the <a href="../exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span></a> into Prince William Sound. Alaska North Slope crude oil contains many chemicals that can kill a plant or animal outright, or cause injury to the extent that it has less chance of surviving in the wild. For example:</p>
<ul><li>Oil, in high enough concentrations, can poison animals by internal and external routes of exposure.</li>
<li>Birds and mammals often die because oil fouls fur and feathers so that they no longer insulate.</li>
<li>Smaller organisms can be smothered by a thick layer of oil washing ashore.</li>
<li>Recent research studies by NOAA scientists have shown that even small amounts of petroleum hydrocarbons can impair the successful development of fish eggs and embryos.</li>
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/ashley.braun/oiled-cormorant-rocky-oiled-shore_exxon-valdez-oil-spill-trustee-council_0.jpg" width="356" height="387" alt="Photo: Oiled cormorant on a rocky, oil-covered shore." title="Oiled cormorant on a rocky, oil-covered shore. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
Oiled cormorant on a rocky, oil-covered shore. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council) </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-text-2 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The oil from the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> killed or injured in all of these ways. We also now know that our attempts to clean up an oil spill can indirectly harm some of the resources we are trying to protect.</p>
<p>For example, using hot water or chemicals to remove oil can harm plants and animals, and simply sending a team of cleanup workers into an oiled area can trample sensitive organisms and mix oil more deeply into a beach. The experts who respond to oil spills must consider all of these potential problems when evaluating the trade-offs of how far to go in removing spilled oil.</p>
<p>The <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> was, to that point, the most studied oil spill in history. However, the <a href="https://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/">2010 Deepwater Horizon/BP oil spill</a> will become the new standard for impact and assessment studies and will substantially increase our knowledge about oil spill impacts.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-3 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Related</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-3 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><strong><a href="../../../about/media/toxicity-oil-whats-big-deal.html">The Toxicity of Oil: What's the Big Deal?</a></strong> Explore why oil is toxic and how different recipes for oil can have various toxic effects on living things.</p>
<p><strong><a href="what-weathering.html">What Is Weathering?</a></strong> Learn about happens to oil when it interacts with the physical environment and what we can learn about this behavior from the 1989 <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill.</p>
<p><strong><a href="../../../oil-and-chemical-spills/oil-spills/oil-types.html">Oil Types:</a></strong> Find out more about different kinds of oils and how they can behave differently when spilled in the ocean.</p>
</div></div></div>Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:57:23 +0000ashley.braun308 at https://response.restoration.noaa.govLessons Learned From the Exxon Valdez Spillhttps://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/lessons-learned-exxon-valdez-spill
<div class="field field-name-field-short-title field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Short title:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lessons Learned From the Exxon Valdez Spill</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-1 field-type-image field-label-hidden">
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/ashley.braun/aerial-maxi-barge-water-tanks-workers-hosing-beach_exxon-valdez-oil-spill-trustee-council.jpg" width="356" height="238" alt="Photo: Aerial shot of maxi-barge and shoreline workers cleaning a beach." title="Aerial shot of a maxi-barge with water tanks and shoreline workers hot-water washing a beach in Prince William Sound. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)." /> <div class="node-image-caption">
Aerial shot of a maxi-barge with water tanks and shoreline workers hot-water washing a beach in Prince William Sound. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council). </div>
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</div><div class="field field-name-field-node-weight field-type-list-integer field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Node Weight:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">4</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-scroll-anchor-menu-code field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><ul><li><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/noaa-long-term-study.html">Monitoring the Sound</a></li>
<li><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/our-monitoring-study.html">NOAA Study</a></li>
<li><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/oil-gone.html">Remaining Oil</a></li>
<li><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/prince-william-sound-recovered.html">Ecological Recovery</a></li>
<li><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/implications-response.html">Spill Response</a></li>
<li><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/lessons-learned-exxon-valdez.html">Lessons</a></li>
</ul></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-2 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Site Themes:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-4 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Impacts on Habitat</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-4 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Physical characteristics of the habitat determine the makeup of biological communities. Therefore, altering the physical features of a beach or shoreline can significantly affect the recovery of impacted plants or animals. Physical recovery and stabilization of a site are necessary for biological recovery.</p>
<p>For example, when the beach at Eleanor Island (one of our study sites) was cleaned, its silty sediments were noticeably washed out into the water. We believe that many, if not most, of the animals that normally live in this kind of beach require a certain mix of fine-grained sediments. Many would not return until the beach sediments had stabilized.</p>
<p>If there is a proverbial silver lining to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill, it must include the fact that the incident and its aftermath represented <a href="legacy-exxon-valdez-spill.html">a remarkable opportunity to learn from misfortune</a>. Our research is but one example of the many scientific investigations in Prince William Sound that should help us to understand the environment, how it responds to oil spills and cleanup, and how we can facilitate the process of recovery—however you may choose to define that term.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-1 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>The ultimate goal for the NOAA Prince William Sound Monitoring Program has always been to improve the way we respond to oil spills in a complex environment like Alaska's Prince William Sound.</p>
<p>Our goal is to use science to better understand physical and biological recovery and then apply the lessons to spill response. The insights we gain relate to both the process of environmental monitoring itself and impacts caused by the spill and cleanup. So, what have we learned?</p>
<h5>Science Alongside Cleanup</h5>
<p>First, it is difficult to assess the impacts from a disturbance—even a major one like the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill—in a dynamic system like Prince William Sound. The inherently high degree of natural variability found in such systems can limit or preclude the use of standard or traditional statistical methods.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-2 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>So-called "set-aside sites," areas that were oiled but intentionally left uncleaned, have been critical to the NOAA monitoring program's ability to determine impacts due to oiling alone and those due to cleanup. During an oil spill, there are compelling reasons to clean up all oil; however, to monitor the recovery of shorelines, set-aside sites are key considerations. We recommend that the concept be discussed during oil spill contingency planning and again during the inevitable spill events.</p>
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<img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/sites/default/files/images/ashley.braun/cleanup-workers-spray-oiled-rocks-high-pressure-hoses_exxon-valdez-oil-spill-trustee-council.jpg" width="356" height="233" alt="Photo: Cleanup workers spray oil-covered rocks with high-pressure hoses." title="Cleanup workers spray oil-covered rocks on Prince William Sound with high-pressure hoses. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)" /> <div class="node-image-caption">
Cleanup workers spray oil-covered rocks on Prince William Sound with high-pressure hoses. (Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council) </div>
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<div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-3 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Effects of the Cleanup</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-3 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill/high-pressure-hot-water-washing.html">High-pressure, hot-water washing of shorelines</a>, while effective at removing stranded oil, can damage plants and animals in the treated zone directly and indirectly, short-term and long-term. This might seem obvious, but before the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill there was almost no real documentation of these impacts.</p>
<p>We now know the negative effects of agressive shoreline cleanup methods like high-pressure, hot-water washing. However, this does not mean we would eliminate its use in the future. Hopefully, with the guidance of monitoring efforts like this one, we can employ the method in a wiser fashion.</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-subtitle-5 field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>More Information about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill</p>
</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-text-5 field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="legacy-exxon-valdez-spill.html">The Legacy of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> Oil Spill:</a> Learn how the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill, while an unfortunate incident, provided a necessary impetus to reexamine the state of oil spill prevention, response, and cleanup.</p>
<p><a href="https://aamboceanservice.blob.core.windows.net/oceanservice-prod/podcast/mar09/mw31309.mp3">Podcast: <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> Oil Spill 20th Anniversary Special</a> [MP3, 11 MB, 12 minutes]: NOAA's National Ocean Service talks with OR&amp;R's senior scientist, Dr. Alan Mearns, who was involved in the initial spill response for the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> accident. Dr. Mearns has spent years leading a project that continues to monitor the long-term impact of the huge oil spill. (Making Waves Episode 20, March 13, 2009)</p>
<p><a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/stories/oilymess/welcome.html">Prince William's Oily Mess: A Tale of Recovery:</a> Read a case study of the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill, accompanied by a set of supporting resources, including student and teacher guides, an interactive quiz, an exercise with real data, and an interview with an OR&amp;R scientist.</p>
<p><a href="../../../sites/default/files/Kitch-Mearns-exxon-perspective-2009-NOAAWorld.pdf"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> Oil Spill 20 Years Later: A NOS Scientist's Perspective</a> [PDF, 268 KB]: Twenty years after the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill, Alan Mearns, a senior staff scientist with the Office of Response and Restoration, talks about what it was like to be involved in the initial cleanup and how different it is responding to oil spills today.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pws-osri.org/">Oil Spill Recovery Institute (OSRI):</a> Established by Congress in response to the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill, OSRI works to identify and develop the best available techniques, equipment, and materials for responding to oil spills in the Arctic and sub-Arctic marine environment.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.evostc.state.ak.us/"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> Oil Spill Trustee Council:</a> This partnership was formed to oversee ecosystem restoration in Prince William Sound. Learn more about the <span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> spill, its impacts, and restoration and research efforts.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.pwsrcac.org/">Prince William Sound Regional Citizens' Advisory Council:</a> An independent non-profit organization, the Citizens' Advisory Council works to reduce pollution from crude oil transportation through Prince William Sound and the Gulf of Alaska.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Go back to the <a href="https://response.restoration.noaa.gov/oil-and-chemical-spills/significant-incidents/exxon-valdez-oil-spill"><span class="vessel">Exxon Valdez</span> oil spill overview</a> page.</p>
</div></div></div>Thu, 15 Dec 2011 00:32:03 +0000ashley.braun307 at https://response.restoration.noaa.gov